


Until We Part Ways

by Supah



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Aliens, Astronauts, Attempt at Humor, Character Development, Fluff, Gen, How Do I Tag, Impostor Black (Among Us), Outer Space, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:27:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26898175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Supah/pseuds/Supah
Summary: With plans to hide aboard the Skeld until he’s able to disembark at a distant planet, a sneaky Imposter decides killing would go against his interests. Yet to be discovered, he can’t help but to nudge some things the wrong way from time to time and laugh.
Comments: 35
Kudos: 236





	1. Distress and Delight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two wildly different objectives collide aboard the Skeld, with an all too familiar crew.

The mission went smoothly at first. Past the initial excitement of their first launch, the less experienced astronauts aboard the Skeld took their duties very seriously, bustling around to check systems around the ship and fix any minor issues they could detect. Boring assignments, sure, but everyone understood the importance of their tasks and their role in the machine. Within a few days, everyone had settled into their daily routine.

Three months into the Skeld’s journey to Polus, it became painfully obvious that there was an Imposter onboard.

Food started disappearing, completed tasks were tampered with, and a dozen other smaller strange, unexplainable anomalies seemed to spring up from nowhere. While none of the ship’s small crew had turned up dead, it seemed every day there was a new thing to complain about. Wires were getting cut, vents were left ajar, warm water showers suddenly went cold...

Honestly, it was becoming more annoying than scary. Meeting after meeting was called to try and pinpoint the obnoxious Imposter, but there was never a solid place to point a finger. Again, the crew of ten found themselves huddled around the cafeteria table, awaiting the angry meeting caller to explain the situation. Such was tradition at this point.

White slammed a pizza box onto the table. “Why?” She asked, opening the box to reveal a perfectly normal pizza. “Seriously, just, why? What the hell do you gain from this?” 

Her crewmates stared, confused. “Uhh, okay,” Red began cautiously. “So, what’s up?” White held her head in her hands. “Try the sauce.” 

Within seconds, Red was sprinting to the sink, chugging down water while the rest of the table chuckled at his panicking. Apparently, someone chopped the hottest peppers they could find and added them to the tomato paste.

The pizza had been sabotaged.

Lime was the first to throw someone under the bus. “I saw Purple leave the bunks last night when everybody should’ve been asleep.”

Purple was dumbstruck. “Why weren’t you asleep?!”

Immediately a storm of accusations swept the room and everybody became a suspect in the high crime of pizza terrorism. The screaming quickly became white noise as Black sat quietly, trying not to contribute to the madness. This happened every day, even if it was over something as insignificant as a pizza.

“God damn it, I’m the one who called the meeting!” screamed White, defending herself from another accusation. “Why would I be complaining about it if I was the Imposter?!”

Practically speaking, considering Black’s goal was to hitch a ride until they found another planet, constantly pestering the crew of the Skeld definitely wasn’t the greatest strategy to stay hidden. From what he understood, humans were a pretty clever bunch, and astronauts were even smarter than the common humans. If anyone would be able to figure out he was an Imposter, it would likely be the nine highly educated crewmates aboard the ship he was on, and though he knew causing a stir would undoubtably come to bite him back later, seeing people blame eachother was way too fun to pass up. Bugging humans was an instinct he just couldn’t avoid.

“The water made it WORSE!” cried Red, sinking to the floor as Pink the medic walked in to prescribe him a cup of Greek yogurt.

“How sure are we it isn’t someone here just playing pranks?” asked Orange, already tired of the pointless meeting. “Nobody’s died yet. Isn’t that a trademark Imposter thing? Kill everything?”

Yellow blushed under her helmet. “A few days ago, a floor vent opened while I was in the shower, and I heard someone apologize...”

Black cracked a smile. It really was an accident, though. 

Brown crossed his arms. “Some of the meat in storage is missing. More than the stuff rationed.”

Also true. He thought that would be preferable to gnawing on a crewmate.

“I still don’t get it. There’s clearly an imposter, but it seems like they’re toying with us,” said White, still cradling her ruined pizza. “They haven’t sabotaged the ship’s navigation or oxygen pumps, and the reactor is fine too. It’s like everything they’re doing is an attempt to get under our skin more than pose a threat,” she groaned, looking around the table. “And what’s worse is that they’re here right now, probably laughing at it!”

Black, indeed, found it hilarious whenever White got this upset.

Blue drummed his fingers. “I’ve been watching the cameras. There’s not enough evidence to say who it is for sure, but I’ll get the recordings pulled up and start sifting through them. Although everyone’s understandably worried, be thankful we’re all okay,” he said, rubbing his arm. “I think we should call it here.”

None willing to argue with the Captain, all eight (plus one) crewmates muttered their agreement and headed for the sleeping quarters. Another pointless meeting, only serving to further wither away White’s sanity. 

After everyone had made it to their rooms, Black nestled back in his sheets, staring at the ceiling paitently. Purple leaned over the top bunk to look at him. “Trouble sleeping?” 

He yawned, nodding.

While Purple was a nice enough bunkmate, she had a tendency to be a night owl, and when sneaking out into the ship every night was part of your routine, having a light sleeper in the bed above yours was a major hurdle. One wrong move and he’d later find himself floating in space.

“I wonder what’ll happen,” she began slowly. “There’s an Imposter, everyone here knows it, but they haven’t really done anything wrong yet. What do we do whenever we find it?”

Black studied his bunkmate curiously, a polarized visor hiding her expression. “Are these the kind of thoughts that keep you awake?”

Purple shook the bed railing. “Seriously. What do you think the crew would do if they found it?”

It was a realistic scenario, but he hated thinking about it. “What usually happens, they’ll kill them. Either that or throw the Imposter out the airlock, pretty much the same thing. That’s what other crews have done.”

He frowned. It wasn’t just just realistic, it was probable at this point.

“Say you were the Imposter and got caught, what would you do?”

Black bristled at that. It was a good question. However, coming from his roommate it was a bit too close to comfort.

“I have no idea,” he responded coolly. “I would try to defend myself, say everyone’s crazy, maybe throw in a few tears for good measure.” Purple listened intently. “But now you’ve got me wondering what they’d do too. We’ll see when we get there I guess.”

Purple, satisfied, rolled back onto the bunk. “I’m asking too many questions.” she said quickly, nestling in the mattress. “Good night, Black.” 

“...Night.”

A human sleep pattern was a strange thing to fake. Black never felt the need to sleep as much as the crewmates did, but he couldn’t let anyone see him leave his room, so every night there was a span of time where he’d simply lay down and wait for everyone to fall asleep. It only lasted about an hour or two, but it was nice and quiet, leaving him a rare opportunity to just think and relax a bit.

The meeting earlier still bothered him. While everyone screaming over eachother made it hard to hear, Lime attested to seeing his bunkmate leave their room the other night. This had been wrong of course, as a Black and Purple suit were hard to tell apart when the lights were off, but it was surprising that he was seen at all.

He briefly considered killing Lime before discarding the idea entirely.

Oddly enough, among humans that would undoubtably kill him the moment he revealed himself, he felt perfectly happy. Messing with the Skeld’s crew and watching the fallout from the corner would never get old, and even though they were still terrified of the thought that an Imposter was aboard, all he had to do was stay hidden for a while longer before they reached a destination where they could part ways. Admittedly he would miss his deranged little Skeld family when that time came, but meanwhile there was a lot of fun to be had. After all, what’s the point of life if you don’t spice things up every now and then?

Like on cue, his insomniac bunkmate started to softly snore. Now on the clock, Black quietly slid into the floor vent, plans in motion.


	2. Saboteur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Imposter has a slight misadventure.

As another rough gust of hot air blew into his face, the miserable Imposter couldn’t help but remember something he’d read when exploring a human database through his tablet. 

“...Imposters have a peculiar fascination with tunnels. When presented with the opportunity to explore a burrow or air vent, the temptation to climb through can be almost irresistible...” 

Black HATED vent crawling. 

The entry was so incredibly wrong that he vowed to set it straight if he were caught. The nauseating mixture of heat, filth, and claustrophobia was pure torture to him, but it was a necessary suffering, for he had a mission to complete tonight. Slowing his pace, he looked skyward to his first stop, the floor vent of the captain’s bunk. 

At the previous meeting, Blue had made the grave mistake of voicing his intentions to thoroughly study camera footage in order to find a likely suspect. Black knew the locations of all the cameras and avoided them like his life depended on it (because it did), but he couldn’t avoid slipping up forever, considering his... hobbies. Destroying the entire camera system in a single night to cover his tracks was not very likely, but wiping the evidence Blue already had to sift through with was definitely an option.

He heard both White and Blue snoozing peacefully in their respective bunks from the vent hole. Unable to see fully into the room, Black extended a tendril to feel for the Captain’s tablet, carefully moving as to not disturb the two. 

Suddenly, his face was pulled into the vent grate as someone yanked on his arm. 

“Good doggy...” White murmured softly in her sleep, snuggling with the alien’s tendril like a little teddy bear.

Black started panicking as his face was slammed into the grate again. No matter which way he tried to writhe out of the hold, he couldn’t escape, White held his limb in a death grip. Who the hell held a dog like this?!

Ignoring the rising questions of White’s possibly abusive tendencies towards animals, the Imposter sat completely helpless as she crushed his arm in her sleep, a strong tug occasionally grinding his cheek against the metal wall or vent grate, nothing but sheer willpower stopping him from crying out. 

Eventually her hold slackened and he quickly retreated, half expecting to be thrown into the wall again. Thankfully, though it hurt like hell, somehow the two were still asleep in their beds. 

After a long moment of hyping himself up enough to try again, Black once again tried searching for the tablet, this time with considerably more success. Relieved, he pulled the stupid thing in beside him and had a look through it’s contents.

The battered Imposter stared in horror at the useless device. The tablet had no security footage downloaded on it, only a couple photos of a mushy looking human child and countless more of a brown dog with a lolling tongue, presumably the captain’s pet.

Probably the same one White was dreaming of murdering.

Sighing, he returned the tablet to its former place on the nightstand. The only things gained from this dreadful experience were scrapes, cuts, and a bruised arm from a sleeping psychopath. What a time to be alive.

Steeling himself, Black did his best to forget the traumatic experience and continued on to the security room. After a long crawl to the second stop of the night, he kicked the vent open and hauled himself into the room, rolling onto the metal floor as he regarded the camera system. Finding and deleting the footage shouldn’t take too long.

____________________________________

Purple jolted awake and hit her head on the wall again, hard. After months of repeatedly reminding herself to move the bunk, she still hadn’t done anything about it but complain. After hitting the wall for the third time this week, it was time to act.

She reminded herself to move the bunk later.

Rubbing her head, she sat up and peered groggily into the room. Something was slightly off. “Black?” she whispered, to which there was no reply. Frowning, Purple leaned over the edge of her bunk to note her roommate missing from his bed. Hopping out of the covers, she climbed down and felt around for the switch close to the door.

The lights were out.

“Ugh, of course...” she grumbled, moving to grab her tool set. It was well into sleeping hours, but for the Skeld’s head electrician, duty always called. Checking her tablet, she pinpointed a power surge in the security room, so that’s where she set off.

As Purple emerged into a pitch black tunnel, a voice screamed in her head to turn back. Not traveling with a partner and walking in the dark were both huge contradictions to safety protocol, but she considered the severity of the problem. Not having lights was like not having eyes, the crew couldn’t function if the problem wasn’t fixed.

Stubborn mind reinforced, she began walking, noting the dark hallways were akin to a scene from a cheesy scary movie. While she could still hear the engines working at the back of the ship, the only light came from her small flashlight and the occasional bright spark from a deactivated camera. Not a good sign, but she was a pessimist at heart anyways.

When Purple reached the shut doors of the security room, the voice in her head went from screaming to doing somersaults. After knocking on the metal lightly, she turned back down the hallway to the electrical room, hopefully she’d be able to open the doors there.

____________________________________

Black was sprawled on the floor in front of the camera system, his suit smoking when he woke to the noise of someone pounding on the shut doors. 

Shit.

The captain must’ve already been a step ahead of him. Trying to log into the system only greeted him with an annoying “ha ha!” from the speakers and a smiley face on the display, followed by a massive electric shock.

The disoriented Imposter rolled into the vent with the speed of a crippled snail, making his way to anywhere else but security. Fear overcame his mind, and soon he was completely lost in what should’ve been a familiar vent as he tried to escape discovery. After what felt like hours, he made it to a floor vent.

____________________________________

As Purple set down her tool bag next to the circuit breaker, the vent in the corner of the room, and out crawled Black, his suit smoking as he rolled onto the floor looking completely defeated and out of breath. The Imposter froze as he saw his roomate gazing at him in horror. “Oh.” he wheezed.

“Oh...” she replied, immobile.

The two were wordless for a long moment as they regarded eachother. “So,” he began causally, “How did you sleep?” 

Immediately Purple rushed to the door as Black lurched to his feet, moving to sloppily tackle her to the ground by her feet before quickly closing the doors of the electrical room. “Wait a second, just hear me out,” he pleaded to the cowering crewmate who was busy backing away from him towards the corner. “My god,” said Purple, still backing into the corner. “It’s you! I’ve been sharing a room with you!” she cried, her visor hiding the tears streaming beneath her helmet. 

“All those nights staying up late to watch horrible Indian movies with my roomate, and he’s an Imposter!” she screamed, holding her hands up as if they would separate her from harm. “For the record, those movies were terrible, but they were kind of enjoyable.” Black interjected.

“No wonder your farts at night smelled like sulfur, you freak!”

The Imposter looked up. “My sense of smell is a million times better than you can imagine. I can sniff your unwashed blankets from my bunk below yours, and that smell alone makes me want to leave that room every night.” he said, making Purple blush behind the visor. “I... what... hey!” she exclaimed, steering the conversation away from her embarrassment, “What the hell were you doing? The lights are out!”

Black slid down the wall to sit across from his shaking bunkmate. Purple had no idea what to think or say.

“Tonight was supposed to be like every other night on this ship. I was going to go erase some of the security footage, stuff hot sauce into Red’s toothpaste, and take White’s tablet off the charger so it would be dead in the morning. Instead, White almost broke my arm in her sleep, I got my face mashed into a vent, and a booby trap on the camera system almost electrocuted me. I have not had the most fun night.”

She couldn’t help to laugh. “You got beat up by WHITE? What a loser!” she said, a hiss cutting her moment of triumph short. It was a lot of information to process, but Black certainly looked like he went through hell. Purple was just still amazed at the fact her roommate was an Imposter. “I just can’t believe it. You’re the one who ruined all those pizzas.”

Black nodded at that, proudly drawing himself up. It was extremely difficult to figure out how to use the blender to chop the peppers, but it was totally worth it when seeing Red run to the sink

Purple was still understandably scared to death, but the fact she hadn’t been ripped apart yet gave her hope in coming out alive. “So what happens now?” she squeaked, her voice betraying an inner panic. 

Black shook his head. “I’m clearly not going to kill you, idiot. Can you just do me a teeny, tiny favor and keep a lid on this?” he asked, shifting slightly. “I kind of don’t want to die, and I’m sure you don’t want to either. So, let’s just pretend this little... “ he trailed off, searching for the word, “Whatever the hell this is here, didn’t happen. Deal?”

“Deal! Deal!” she screamed, crossing her fingers for Black to see. “I promise I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

Black nodded slowly as he stood. Apparently that was enough. “Okay.” he said, leaning to open the vent again. “Wait, where are you going?” she asked, still in shock. “Back to the bunk,” he replied over his shoulder, halfway in the vent already. “I was never here, and you just got up to fix the lights.” 

Purple nodded, understanding. “Can you really smell my sheets from your bunk?”

____________________________________

The rest of the night was terrible, neither the frustrated Imposter nor the freaked out crewmate were able to get a wink of sleep. Purple had successfully fixed the lights and a few other small electrical issues before returning to the room, but she couldn’t just ignore the alien trying to sleep on the bottom bunk. “You smell like burnt plastic.” she said bluntly, eyes burning from a long day.

“You smell like you peed yourself earlier.”

Purple leaned over the railing to angrily stare at her rude bunkmate. “Why do you do it?” she asked, genuinely curious now. “All this messing with people and annoying the- MY crewmates, what’s the point?”

Black gave her the most serious stare he could muster, their visors locked in an intense moment. “Because it’s hilarious.”

She didn’t roll back onto her bunk. “So that’s it? You’re just here because you think it’s funny to annoy everybody?”

“...Yes.”

She wasn’t buying it. “You didn’t risk getting thrown out of an airlock just for fun. Why are you really here?”

Black chose not to respond.

“Fine, whatever,” she said, drawing up the sheets to nestle in the mattress. “I kind of think it’s funny to see everyone get mad too.” The Imposter cracked a toothy grin at that.

Silence filled the awkward bunk once more. “Say, I agreed to keep quiet, so now you owe me a favor back.”

Black waved his hands, dismissing the statement. “No, no, that’s not how this works. I could’ve killed you, you’re not doing me a favor when I’m the one who decided not to stab you like every other Imposter would’ve done in that same scenario.”

He had a point, but persistence was Purple’s trademark. “Come on, it’s nothing major.” she pressed, attempting to reason. “In fact, you’ll probably like it. I’m just asking you to do something small tomorrow night when you leave the bunk to do your vent crawling or whatever.” 

Black growled, he already hated where this was headed. “I hate vent crawling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The feedback on the first chapter was surprising, thanks everyone!


	3. Intoxication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Skeld’s captain finds a note from their uninvited guest.

Through the still air of the slumbering Skeld blared a screeching pitch, a terrible noise that both human and Imposter had come to despise: the call to the morning meeting. 

Blue held an accusatory gaze as nine astronauts milled into the cafeteria, hands behind his back as he stared into the reflective visors of his half-asleep crew. “So,” he began, revealing a small piece of paper as the last of the bunch took their seats. “Last night, it seems our Imposter pal left us a little message.” Confusion rippled through the rainbow of suits. 

“I realize the question of ‘Who left this here?’ is completely pointless, so without wasting any time, I’ll just read out what they had to say.”

“Hello,” the captain started, to which the Skeld’s astronauts reluctantly replied in kind.

“No,” Blue said, almost disappointed. “I’m just... reading the note. I’m not saying hi to any of you.” Brown’s eyes overflowed with betrayal as the greeting was retracted.

He returned to the note. “You all suck.”

Red shifted in his seat. “I don’t suck...”

The captain rolled his eyes. “In the past week I have been shocked, burned, and cut on elaborately laid traps far too many times to not be concerned with my safety.”

“I mean, yeah.” He said, chuckling. “Isn’t that the point? What, are we supposed to all hold hands and kiss with the alien?”

The circle of astronauts went unnervingly quiet, not a single soul answered besides Purple, who raised a shaking hand. 

“Yes, Purple?”

“Are... are you still reading the note there? Can we reply now? Or... I just don’t know if it’s like when you said hello and everyone got confused and...” All the energy drained from her voice as she faced the captain, the half inch different in height between the two suddenly felt like a mountain in comparison. Blue faced them for a long moment before furrowing his brow and readjusting his hat, hoping she’d be able answer her own question. “Anyways,”

“While another in my place would have jumped at the chance to kill, (this crew is very goofy, it wouldn’t have been hard,) I have instead stood by patiently as a trap-laying sadist has attempted to harm me multiple times. Even my small enjoyment of hearing White scream at fake spiders on her hair straightener was ripped away when all the vents were screwed down yesterday, too.”

He glanced up with a half smile on his face at White, who was busy hiding her face in embarrassment. 

“What’s with her being targeted all the time?” interjected Orange, laughing. “Think this thing’s got the hots for you, Whitey?”

Black hissed inwardly at being called a ‘thing’.

White tilted her helmet sideways. “I guarantee any chick you’d ask out would rather make out with an Imposter.”

“Oooooh!” hummed Yellow and Brown in perfect unison, the two exchanging a hearty high five at his expense.

“...So I give up. You win.” The captain held his palms up in a questioning gesture. “What the hell is this?”

Much to Black’s surprise, Red weighed in on the matter. “I don’t really think there’s an angle here, sir.”

The captain looked puzzled. “What are you taking about?”

“Well, ah, with all due respect captain, I think it feels kind of wrong going so hard on this Imposter knowing they haven’t really done anything, well, evil.”

Black was stunned. Out of everyone on the ship, Red had undoubtably gotten it the worst from him, and yet here he was somewhat defending an anonymous wrongdoer, an Imposter nonetheless.

Blue paused for a moment. “Red, Imposters eat people. Ours on the note here learned how to make hot sauce just to torture you, and you’re telling me they don’t deserve it?”

He rubbed his arm. “Me and my sister used to pull stuff like this on each other all the time when we were kids, Cap. Honestly, my only problem is that I don’t know who to get back at. I dunno, this stuff just seems... disproportionate in comparison to what they’re doing.” As he finished, Yellow muttered a shy agreement.

“Yeah? And that’s what you think trying to keep my crew safe is? A disproportionately cruel response?”

Red shrugged. “No bodies, sir.”

Frowning, the captain returned to the note.

“...I hope this makes you happy. When we have Lime that forces us to sit through his terrible poems at lunch time, or Brown who makes us listen to his ear piercing singing, who’s really the bad guy?”

The captain sucked in air through his teeth. “That’s... I mean, yeah. I’m sorry, but I have to agree with them here.”

“Asshole.” Brown stood abruptly and stormed off back to his bunk.

The onlookers had no time to gape before the hyper-focused captain continued as if nothing happened. “There’s a bit more written here, but it looks like a list of demands more than anything.”

“Like what?” Pink questioned, curiously twirling a pen between his fingers.

“Uhh...” he began, double checking the note. “They want the printer removed because it scares them, right here there’s a suggestion for alphabetizing the bookshelf in security, and there’s a formal request for a ball of yarn to be left in the O2 room tonight.”

He let the bizarre note simmer in everyone’s ears. Of all the things expected of an imposter, a laundry list of discomforts and grievances neatly written on paper was not one of them.

“Well, honestly, I didn’t really have much to say before this,” he said in a weary tone. “I am just as clueless as you all when it comes to this situation. No crew has ever dealt with any Imposter like this. While there’s still reason to be cautious, the booby traps may have been a bit...”

“Disproportionate.” repeated Red.

“...I’ll consider it, Red. Anywho, because of your hard work yesterday, we don’t have much to do besides emptying trash and a few other small things. After that, everyone’s free to do as they please. And I guess that includes this Imposter too, even if I don’t have a choice to disclude them.” he mumbled. “Just, uh, don’t kill anybody.”

The crew cheered for their first off-day aboard the ship in weeks, whooping as the captain nodded in approval at their joy. In the commotion, Purple dashed to the storage room and quickly returned carrying a heavy cardboard case.

“It’s time!” she cried, setting the clinking package ontop of the table.

Pink was stunned. “Holy shit, how did you smuggle drinks onto a government spacecraft?”

Purple held a finger to her visor as she grabbed a bottle. “What drinks?” she said slyly as she popped the cap, holding it high in the air in wait.

Blue was about to say something, but then quickly shut his mouth and grabbed a bottle with a gruff chuckle of approval. “Oh, what the hell.” Pink caved, grabbing one with the glasses and raising it to clink with theirs. “Toast!”

Purple looked over the spider web of arms. “Come on!” she encouraged, beaming down at the timid Imposter who was busy studying a bottle cap. “You can’t skip out on this one, pal. I literally risked expulsion for this moment.”

With no clue as to what the dark beverage was, Black went against his better judgement and joined the others who looked to be having fun. Whatever the drink was couldn’t have been that bad.

He regretted his decision as soon as the beer touched his lips, the bitter taste of the putrid beverage causing him to cough as it burned through his nose and throat like acid.

“Whoooo!” cried Purple, causing him to jump as she slapped him lightly on the back in congratulations. The Imposter scrunched his face in disgust. “This,” he coughed, “Is absolutely terrible.”

Purple laughed, raising her empty bottle as she whispered in his ear. “Nobody drinks it for the taste, it’s for the feeling it gives you. Just trust me and down the whole thing, it makes everything seem more... well, you’ll just see. Do it!”

From a distance, Pink watched as Black, the most paranoid crewmate he’d ever seen, hold a beer at arm’s length like it was a live explosive. They seemed reluctant, but Purple chanting “Drink! Drink! Drink!” in their ear eventually broke their reservations and they quickly gave into the peer pressure. Orange and Yellow cheered from the other side of the room as Black downed the beer in record time. 

Twenty minutes later, the medic found himself grinning at the world’s biggest lightweight as they descended further and further away from sobriety. From ONE BEER, Black had transformed into a staggering, tripping mess, much to Purple’s dismay. 

“What... whaaat wasss... what’s in that?...” Black groaned as he staggered past Pink, falling to his knees in a heap. 

The medic held up his hands as eyes started turning their way. “Handled!” he said, kneeling to sling the completely wasted crewman’s arm over his shoulder. “Jesus Christ man, let’s get you on a cot. The hell’s the matter with you?”

It was difficult to maneuver Black onto a bed as they were unconscious, but thankfully Lime popped into the room to lend a hand. “I got it from here,” Pink said, preparing a checkup. “Thanks for the help.”

Lime cracked his knuckles as he headed for the door. “No problem, nerd, I’ll leave you to it. Make sure he doesn’t puke anywhere, not cleaning it up today!” he called cheerily behind his shoulder, not giving the medic time to respond before he was gone.

Smiling, Pink returned his attention to Black, who had rolled onto his stomach, groaning. With a light shake, the crewmate looked up at him sluggishly.

“Oh, one last thing,” said Lime, peeking back into the room again. “You know how whoever wrote that note said my poetry was like torture?”

Pink scratched his head instinctively, unable to make eye contact. “There’s a few things that could use work and such, I know, but overall... you don’t think it really sucks, right?” 

Pink sighed, he didn’t find enjoyment in cruelty to others. That was reserved for dentists, not space medics.

“Right!?”

“Look, Lime, can we talk about this later? Buddy here can’t even walk straight, he just KO’d after drinking a singular beer somehow. He might be having some sort of allergic reaction, I gotta do my thing.” Trying to hide his hurt expression, Lime nodded his understanding and quickly left. 

“Right, come on, try and stand for a second and I’ll help you to the med scanner.” Black felt unbelievably heavy as the two struggled over to the machine, the drunk crewmate desperately placing his hands on the wall to stand up straight as he stood on the device.

“Might tingle a bit.” the medic cautioned, moving to start the scanner as a black tendril wrapped around his hand and pulled it away from the power switch. Completely caught off guard, he faced Black in wordless horror. 

The Imposter enveloped Pink in a writhing cocoon of tendrils and pulled him close. The medic, feeling helpless, groaned in pain as the alien tightened his hold around him. 

‘Please be the emotional drunk and not the violent drunk.’ Pink inwardly pleaded, mind racing as he hung uselessly in the air.

“Black,” he choked, struggling to get free, “I’m just trying to help,”

The Imposter looked up apologetically as he gingerly lowered the medic to the floor. “I’m sorry,” he said, bringing in the terrified medic for an awkward yet genuine hug. “I’m sorry.”

Dumbfounded, Pink returned the hug, patting the emotionally unstable alien on the back as he fought to catch a shaky breath. “It’s, uh, it’s alright,” he whispered, surprised he was still alive.

“I think,” Black slurred, beginning to rock back and forth. “I think I’m gonna die.”

Pink was amazed that the Imposter felt in danger, considering he was the one wrapped in a carnivorous alien’s death grip. “No man,” he soothed, “You’re not gonna die. You’re just drunk.”

A thick silence followed for a few moments before the alien hugged him tighter. “I think... the captain wants to kill me.”

The medic’s eyes widened. “No, no, you’re going to be fine,” comforted Pink, still rocking slowly. His response came in the form of a high pitched whine, almost like a puppy. The Imposter sniffled, on the verge of tears. 

“Look, Let’s just get you back to the cot, okay? A nice sleep could do you a world of good, buddy. So, let’s, uh, just make our way back over there and get you to sleep, huh? Sound good? Just, uh, let me go and then you can take a rest to calm down a bit, just be calm and you’ll be fine, alright?”

“O-Okay,” He said simply, the mass of tendrils unwinding from the rambling doctor as the Imposter made their own way to the cot. “Pink, I think, you’re the best doctor... ever...” he mumbled, settling into a curl as he drifted off to sleep, rumbling deeply which the medic could only guess to be snoring.

“Thanks bud, it-it means a lot.” Pink stuttered to the sleeping form, scratching the back of his head as he stared at the bundle of tentacles on the bed, the sound of an otherworldly cat’s purr vibrating in his ears as the creature dreamt happily. 

“Holy shit.”  
________________________________________

Black snapped awake from his alcohol induced slumber at the shake of his shoulder, a jarring movement that made him writhe beneath his sheltering blanket. He tried hard to remember where he was, but the only thing he remembered was that disgusting beverage and the incessant headache that it gave him.

The shake came again, slightly rougher this time. 

Groaning, the Imposter shrugged off his blanket and sat up to see an unexpected semicircle of chairs erected around his bed, every suit on the ship invading his little room at once. Black blinked “Am I dead?”

“No, if you were, you’d be in hell listening to my poems.” pouted Lime, his hands crossed as he stared daggers into the Imposter.

“Not yet, damn it.” huffed the captain, tapping his foot. “We’re getting to that. Since we couldn’t move you to the cafeteria,” he said, tapping Black on the chest with a finger, “We’re doing this meeting right here, right now.”

Black unconsciously gripped the bed railing. “A meeting?” he questioned, looking to the med bay computer clock. “It’s past sleep schedule time, what’s up?”

The room went quiet, each wanting another to speak first. 

Lime clicked his tongue in agitation, tilting his head as he scanned the row of crewmates before looking at Black directly. “You all too scared to say it with some chest? Fine, I’ll do it. Black, I think you’re the Imposter.”

The dreaded accusation rang in the air like gunshot, nobody daring to make the first move.

Propping himself up with a pillow, Black drew a shaky breath as he faced the row of chairs on an equal eye level. “So that’s what this is?” he asked, emoting angrily with his hands from his bed. “A lynch mob? Everyone came here hyped up to drag me out of a med bay cot and into an airlock? Have you all lost your fucking minds?!” he raved, causing a few to flinch. “I felt like I almost died after drinking that poison in a bottle, and this is what I wake up to? A one-way court hearing? Am I-“

“Woah, stop!” cried blue, waving hands like a referee. “Stop! This isn’t a lynch mob you dumbass, what’s gotten into you?”

Black took a deep breath before continuing. “I feel like I ran a marathon and ended it by running head first into a wall, and Lime’s accusation calling me a killer was the first thing I hear. What do you mean ‘what’s gotten into you’?”

Blue smacked his lips as he studied the irate crewmate on the bed, gears of thought turning to figure a way to diffuse the situation. Finding no clear way to break the news, he decided to take the blunt approach. “Show of hands who think Black is an Imposter.”

Every hand in the room went up instantly.

“Show of hands to eject Black from the ship.”

Lime still kept his hand raised, but the others dropped their arms. 

“Do you understand now?” Blue asked, leaning more against his chair. “This isn’t a mob. Hell, this isn’t even an official vote, I’m just here to tell you and everyone else the news so that there’s no doubt to be had. I think you’re the Imposter, son, but I don’t know for sure. And honestly, I don’t even know what to do with you if you are, but from now on,” he said, reaching for something behind his clipboard, “You’re wearing this.”

With an unnecessary amount of force, Blue leaned over the cot to slap a big blue sticker to Black’s suit. The Imposter leaned to read it in complete disbelief.

“SUS’D,” they read carefully. “Are you kidding me? It’s not enough to just communicate this to eachother?”

The captain pursed his lips. “There have been numerous reports from most of the crewmates about you partaking in, shall we say, unusual behavior the past few weeks. Everyone has their own reasons, including me. Who doesn’t know how to use a broom when asked to sweep the floor?”

Black tried repressing the embarrassing memory, cursing himself for not studying human technology enough.

“Plus,” added the captain, “I think it looks really funny.”

“He asked me how to open a jar of peanut butter.” chimed in Brown lamely. ‘Snitch’, Black thought angrily, hugging his pillow in frustration. “You didn’t know either, that’s why you asked...”

“He, uh, took a raw steak from the freezer one time too. Just walked straight to the bunks with it.” added Yellow, trying not to talk for too long.

‘And this is the thanks I get for eating a cold steak over a warm crewmate.’ he thought numbly.

Lime yawned as he leaned his head on his palm. “I saw him vent last night.”

The Imposter exploded. “Liar!” he yelled, flipping his blanket, startling the astronaut “All the vents were sealed closed, how would anyone have done that!?”

“You would know, huh?”

“Enough!” bellowed Red, standing up from his chair to cast down disapprovingly at the tense crew huddled in the tiny med bay room. Gently, he laid a hand on Black’s foot and screeched a “Beeep!”, imitating an emergency button, much to White’s giggling amusement.

The tension died off as a couple snickered into their hands at the ridiculous gesture, eventually sweeping Red into laughing at his own joke. “Okay, guys,” he began, shaking his head. “Let’s try and remember that these are just suspicions. Weird personalities don’t make people aliens, it makes us humans. Black may very well be an Imposter, but on the flip side, he might not be. Would you flip that coin with an airlock? Could you live with yourself if you launched an innocent crew out into space?” he said, beginning to pace back and forth as he wiped down the foggy side of his helmet. “And even then, could any of you live with yourself if you played a hand in ejecting an innocent Imposter, either?”

The astronauts went quiet with contemplation before Orange exhaled strongly. “You’re right,” he relaxed, looking directly at Black. “It might not be Black. I’m voting Red.”

“Thanks for ruining the moment, idiot. I take it back, we should totally vote out an innocent crewmate colored Orange and not feel bad about it.”

Black zoned out as the room quickly descended into chaos like every other meeting they’ve ever had before. Orange threatened to throw a chair at Yellow for not understanding his joke as Lime raved about something regarding poetry in the background, the screaming quickly becoming white noise as it all melded together, a uniform slush that drifted past without aim until he felt a hand lightly grip his foot again, followed by a “Beeep!”

Black involuntarily smiled at the stupid fake button, astonished that Red’s goofy plan had truly worked so far, considering the frenzied crowd had been quelled twice already.

“...Right, well, I think we should call it a night, people.” said Blue, beginning to leave the room with his chair. “Just remember, kid, nobody really knows for sure about you, but there’s always a chance to prove us wrong. Just keep that sticker in view.” he said, waving a hand as he stepped into the hallway. 

“It’s totally you, but whatever.” whispered White, lightly punching Black on the shoulder (which felt like it had just been steamrolled). 

Lime pointed his direction before slowly dragging his thumb across his neck, a gesture the Imposter didn’t fully understand.

As most of the astronauts had already left, Red lagged behind to approach the Imposter on his bed. “You know, I kind of thought it was you before from the way you carried yourself, all quiet and thinking. I don’t give anyone else here a snowball’s chance in hell of making a good natured prank like you do.” he said, sitting back down. “I still don’t expect you to admit it, just know that once you’re out of this bed and feeling better, it’s on. You know what I’m saying?”

“...Right.” replied Black, still trying to process the fact that the crew had just jumped verbally him in a nurse’s office.

“Cool, cool. Well then, adios, ‘Not Me’.” he said, patting the alien’s head in a friendly way as he took his leave.

The med bay had emptied just as quickly as the crew had flooded in, and just Black and Pink were left together once more. “Doc, what the hell happened last night, seriously?” he asked, a strange, pleading fear in his voice. “Why do you think it’s me?”

Pink stretched his collar in nervousness as he closed the doors to the room, ignoring the sirens going off in his head as he locked himself in with the thing. “You got drunk and showed me, like, all thirty of your arms. That’s why I think it’s you.” he said flatly, thoroughly entertained by the alien’s shocked expression. “And you told everyone?”

Pink held up his hands. “Hey, I didn’t tell anybody, kid. I tucked you in with a little blanket, then I went to go get lunch, and that’s when the captain told me his plans of, well, this. No time today did I explain what happened between us, you have my word.” He said, holding up a hand to cross two fingers. “Doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“Oh?” The alien growled, unconvinced. “Then where were you when I woke up just now? You were outside the med bay with everyone else.”

“...I was trying to find a ball of yarn.”

Pink could feel the anger radiating from the alien as they gripped his arm like an iron vice with a lengthy tendril, the doctor fearing for his life the second time in one day. After a moment, the hold eventually slackened and Black began to laugh, a pleasant realization of what the medic said dawning on him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry for the delay. The chapters are already planned out, I just don’t really have that much time. I hope the longer length of this one makes up for the wait, the next chapter shouldn’t be too long. Also, thank you everyone for the overwhelmingly good response!


	4. Festivities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew gets festive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit late, but I thought I’d write something for the holidays. Merry Christmas everyone!

It had been a long month since the night of confronting Black, and still the Skeld cruised without incident. The crew was settling into the festive Christmas spirit intrinsic of December, with everyone taking part in spreading holiday cheer through stringing up decorations, playing Christmas music lightly through the speaker system, and the occasional group event, where they gathered to vote on and watch terrible movies together. With the year’s greatest holiday on the horizon and morale at an all-time high, things were good in their little home in space.

Black’s initial unhappiness from being all-but discovered faded slightly over time as he learned more and more about this magical “Christmas” from asking his roommate, Purple. While he didn’t understand the holiday at first, it was hard to ignore the joy that practically buzzed in the air, and eventually it had begun to rub off on him.

Though things definitely weren’t perfect, they definitely weren’t that bad either.

______________________________________

Mid-way through stringing up a holly wreath over the electrical doorway, a certain astronaut froze as she saw a dark suit down the hall slowly approaching. She began to pack her small kit up, briskly trying to make her way down the other end of the hall before being seen.

“Yellow?”

She stopped mid-stride and grimaced at the sound, her plan to sneak by Black undetected completely shattered at the sound of his voice. Inner panic rising, the astronaut attempted to calm herself before turning around. “Oh, hey!” She said cheerily, ignoring every sense screaming to run another direction.

Before everyone ‘knew’, Black was, admittedly, quite pleasant to be around. While quite reserved and introverted, he was enjoyable to speak with in his rare talkative modes, and usually always a happy soul. However, since that night the crew had outright accused him of being the Imposter, his attitude had shifted. While still his quiet self, on the now rare occasion anyone spoke to him, they couldn’t help but feel a tinge of underlying sadness in the way he spoke, a poorly hidden stress that stemmed from the obvious fear of being ejected for being something other than human. Despite the unspoken truth of Black being an alien, when Yellow saw him in that moment she couldn’t help but feel bad for him as she remembered how he was before, however brief that moment was.

Two snaps brought her attention back to reality.

“You there?”

The astronaut shook her head, cursing herself for daydreaming in midst of conversation. “Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?”

Black waved it off, seemingly unaffected by being ignored. “I just wanted to talk to you for a second, if that’s okay.”

“Alright, what’s up?” 

The Imposter shifted on his feet uncomfortably, as if not sure where to begin. “Do you consider us friends?”

Yellow set her hands to her hips as she mulled the implications around in thought. “I mean, there’s only ten of us here. It’s kind of hard to not be friends with a group so tight knit, don’t you think?”

The Imposter tilted his head. “You kind of didn’t answer.”

Yellow grinned, the need for confirmation as plain as day. “Yes, doofus, I do.”

Black crossed his arms in annoyance. “Then why are you always trying to avoid me?”

The question came as a surprise, she hadn’t meant for her behavior to be so blatant. While Yellow felt bad for intentionally trying to keep her distance, the chance of being dead would be worse, she reasoned. But, try as she might, justification still didn’t make it feel like the right thing to do.

“Come on, you already know. I won’t say anything that’s news to you.”

The silence that followed would’ve almost been comical had Black not looked so hurt at the reality.

“That’s not fair.”

Yellow sighed, it was a strange situation for everyone to be sure. She was glad nobody was dead, but the thought of an alien onboard the ship was still... unsettling, to say the least. “Black, you’re an Imposter. Imposters eat people.”

The alien frowned.

“They literally eat people. How do you not understand why people are nervous around you?”

“I... ugh,” he began, throwing his hands in the air. “I do get it, but show me a dead body! Have you seen a dead body?”

“Did you just admit it?” She said, smiling at his rapidly deteriorating sense of composure. Before the Imposter had a chance to fully explode, the amused astronaut rounded up the last of her tools into a bag, preparing to leave before the tirade began. “Look, you might’ve convinced your little girlfriend that you’re harmless-“

“Girlfriend!?”

Yellow couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Your roomie, Purple. You guys aren’t?...”

She made a movement, crashing her hands together.

“No. No! What’s wrong with you?”

“...Right.” She nodded, unconvinced. “Well, you might’ve convinced that Purple gal, but I don’t know you as well as she does, and as far as I know, the rest of the crew doesn’t either. Can you blame any of them that act the same way?”

He stood the same way, arms crossed, legs pinned to the floor as if it would crumble underneath him if he moved. “Could you please help me out? How do I make this right?” 

It was then that Yellow saw the glimmer of humanity. Imposter or not, nobody should feel so excluded during such a special time. She felt a pang of regret for treating him like a hungry, autonomous killing machine, and not for how she truly acted.

She wrinkled her nose. The pang of regret was immediately replaced with clarity.

“Is there anything I could do to make you stop running away every time I look your direction?” He persisted.

She frowned in thought, fully realizing the extent of the Imposter’s distress. “Fine, I see your point. There’s still a chance you might be an alien and all, but that isn’t reason to avoid you, because you’re nice, and nobody’s been hurt yet. Is that it?”

Black blinked. “Yes?”

“You’re insane,” She said abruptly. “Everyone knows it’s you, and the reason they’re afraid to be near you is because you still deny it for some reason. Why not just come out and say it already?”

Another set of footsteps sounded from the end of the hallway, slowly approaching from the gloom. The two forgot their argument temporarily to greet White with forced pleasantries, who stopped cold when she saw Black alone with another crewmate in the hallway outside the Electrical room.

“Everything okay here?”

Black wiped over his visor in exasperation as Yellow nodded, which apparently wasn’t enough.

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Yellow confirmed. “We’re just chatting about some stuff is all, it’s cool.”

Visually relaxing, White set down the package she was carrying to rustle through its contents. “Right, uh, well...” She mumbled, fishing for a while before finally retrieving a big red Santa hat. She carefully stepped closer to the statue-like Imposter with the fluffy thing in hand, quickly snapping out to place it on his head before retreating to scoop up the box and hurry away back down the hall. “Merry Christmas!” She yelled over her shoulder, running around the corner.

Yellow giggled at the confused creature as they both watched the frantic woman retreat. “Do you see it now? None of us hate you, not even White, for some reason. She’s just-“

“Afraid.” He finished somberly, the end of the hat drooping over his visor. 

Yellow smiled sadly. “Exactly.”

Black’s eyes widened as Yellow brought him into a light hug, attempting to reassure him. “You might be annoying sometimes, but I forgive you. Merry Christmas, Mr. Grinch.”

“Merry Christmas.” He puffed.

______________________________________

“Checkmate.”

Black looked at the board in disbelief. Though he began learning this game his bunkmate called ‘chess’ rather recently, he couldn’t blame his inexperience on the mistake this time, there were other things on his mind.

As if reading his thoughts, Purple placed a game piece back on the table between them. “Something up?”

Shaking his head, he began to pack the set back into its case and finished just as a piece of paper slid beneath their bunk door. Curious, he grabbed it off the floor to inspect what he could only gather to be an invitation. The paper read “MOVIE NIGHT!!” in big, glossy letters, and the bottom of the page featured a cartoonish depiction of him as an Imposter, stomach-mouth open, a mass of wiry tongues busily grabbing popcorn. 

Half amused-half dumbstruck, he opened the door and peered into the hallway. Whoever had delivered the paper was already long gone.

“Let me see!” Purple said as she crashed into his hunched form to see the invitation, excitedly whooping in pure glee to go join the rest of the crew in the cafeteria once more. “Movie Night!” She yelled, playfully shaking his shoulders as he succumbed to the infectious happiness and decided to come along. “Okay, fine!” He said, placing the board game back underneath his bunk. “But if this all goes badly, it’s not my fault. It’s yours, and whoever drew...” He held the picture of himself to eye level, examining the poorly drawn lines once more. “This.”

Purple pushed him out of the room before any second thoughts could surface.

______________________________________

White inspected the drawing of an alien ravenously eating popcorn before glancing back up at Black, who stood there innocently. “Who drew this?”

When her only reply was a shrug in response, she watched in horror as the alien walked off to greet the others. The panicked astronaut scurried across the room to find Yellow, who was busy at the microwave with a bag of popcorn. “Do you know anything about this?” White whisper-yelled, causing the occupied crewmate to jump in surprise. 

“Don’t do that!” She screeched, steadying herself on the countertop. “I’m not good with scares.”

White held up the paper plainly. 

“Yeah I invited him, so what?” Yellow said flatly, returning her attention to the almost-ready bag of popcorn. 

“We’ve had this conversation, you know, the whole ‘eating people’ thing? Why the change of heart?”

Finally turning away from the bag, she spoke to White directly. “If he wanted to kill anyone, he would’ve done it by now. And if for some reason he still wants to, I doubt a crowded room during movie night would be the time and place. Just don’t stress over it too much and you’ll be fine.” She said, pouring the popcorn into a small bowl. 

“Yeah, but-“

“Hey,” Yellow cut her off, already tiring of an argument that hadn’t even happened yet, “It’s almost Christmas. Just give it a chance, okay?”

White grumbled lowly in reluctant agreement.

______________________________________

Brown and Orange simultaneously threw a small amount of popcorn at Black’s stomach, disappointed to see them bounce off his suit and onto the floor in a pointless heap. 

Black had a bored look to his eyes. “What did you expect?” 

Both grinned sheepishly and promptly left to find their seats before the movie began. 

Suddenly finding himself alone once more, the Imposter took the opportunity to admire the decorated cafeteria for the first time. While the crew had done these movie nights frequently throughout the month, he never felt particularly included, so instead opted to stay away. He was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone here not only acted somewhat normally around him, but they were genuinely welcoming. It was a breath of fresh air from the usual day-to-day where everyone tried to avoid him, even though it all seemed a bit off. Wether or not the kindness was genuine, it felt real, and that was enough for today.

He waved at Lime, who came over with a tray of Christmas cookies in hand. “Why the different attitude today, Lime?” He asked with a mocking tone, playfully mimicking the man’s accent. “Usually you run when I wave.”

The crewmate peered over the pile of cookies, feigning offense. “Firs’ awf,” he drawled dramatically, “I figured you’re way too soft to kill anyone.”

“Mm.”

“Second, if you don’t get out of my way, I’ll put the damn printer outside your room when you’re asleep. Don’t think I forgot about your little note.”

Hoping they were kidding about the printer, Black quickly moved out of the man’s way and took to somewhere else.

A bright, alerting tune played in the cafeteria, and on cue Red stepped onto the center table to use as a pedestal. “It is now 9:00 PM,” he began, voice resembling that of a robot more than an actual person. “For the best theater experience, please power off all personal tablets, cell phones, and other inessential electronics, such as pacemakers.”

Black raised an eyebrow at the last one. 

“As a quick reminder, we here at Skeld Cinema take no responsibility for any possible incidents involving possible imposters during possibly fatal film screenings.”

The crowd of crewmates warily glanced Black’s direction, who innocently shrugged once more.

“Your safety is in your hands, and we do not care about you. With that being said, let’s start the movie!” He finished, booed off by the unsatisfied moviegoers. 

Shortly after stepping down, the lights dimmed, and the rest of the crowd flocked to fill the row of seats against the cafeteria wall. Unfamiliar with the usual routine, Black stepped back until only one seat was left, an empty slot between his waving roommate and one other.

White’s mind raced as she stared helplessly at the empty seat to her left. 

“Do you wanna switch?” She asked the captain, who kindly shook his head. “Orange? Pinky? Anyone?”

The silence in return was deafening, and soon her efforts were crushed as Black calmly filled in the spot, a bag of popcorn in hand. 

“Hi.”

White frowned unhappily, almost on the verge of tears as wordlessly hoped to be anywhere but here in front of this thing.

Garnering his mere presence terrified the crewmate, he gave up on greetings with the awkwardly quiet woman. Black turned his attention to the screen, lightly conversing with Purple as the opening credits of a movie he did not recognize were presented. As her voice explaining the plot of the movie melted into the background, a brilliant idea came to mind. Yellow’s advice rung clearly in his head, and in his heart of hearts he knew it to be true. Eventually he would have to cave in and reveal his identity for certain, but like all things he did, it would be done in great fashion.

Not hearing a single word she said, he nodded along. Thankfully, the night ended up being quite enjoyable, and the screening went off without a hitch.

______________________________________

Wether it was the reassuring setting of the cafeteria or simply mental fatigue, White eventually felt somewhat at ease during the movie. While she was too busy being afraid to enjoy the beginning of the film, she liked being there with everyone else. It felt cozy, and appropriate.

A nudge from Black made her stiffen by reflex. “Your bowl empty?”

She looked down to a bowl filled with nothing but a few unpopped kernels, somewhat surprised she had eaten it all without even noticing. 

“You can have my popcorn if you want.”

Not one to pass up a free opportunity, she nervously agreed and quietly thanked him.

A dark tendril wrapped itself around the popcorn bag and politely poured the contents into her bowl.

“AAAAHH!!” She screeched, falling out of her chair and clawing away on the floor. 

“Holy shit, what happened?” Red asked concernedly, helping her up. 

“T-T-The popcorn,” she began through forced breaths. “I asked him for popcorn, and, my god, like an octopus, he-“

“Slow down, what the hell are you talking about?”

“Black! It was a tentacle on the popcorn!”

Red was utterly lost as to what was happening, and judging by the looming quiet from the rest of the group they were too. 

“Meeeeerry Christmaaaaas!” Bellowed the red-suited man on screen, laughing deeply. 

“Shut the fuck up, Santa!” White snapped, rising from the floor. 

Purple snorted, face red with stifled laughter as she leaned to the side. “Really?” She whispered into the Imposter’s ear, who simply took a casual sip of lemonade.

The astronaut paced angrily. “This is exactly why we don’t invite extraterrestrials to a movie party!” She fumed. “He offered me popcorn and... god, why the hell would you do that?”

Black shook his empty bag and crumpled it up. “I think you’re seeing things, White. It’s dark in here, all I did was hand you the bowl.”

“I just-“ she started, before being cut off.

“Come on, White, just watch the rest of it with us. Your eyes just played a trick on you.”

“Yeah, come on!”

The chorus of voices easily peer pressured the stressed crewmate into returning to her seat, where she avoided looking at Black.

Grinning, the Imposter extended a tendril to place the full bowl in her lap again, this time with much less of a reaction. “You can still have it.”

Defeated, White accepted the gift and ate a handful. “I hate you.” She muttered under her breath, fully aware he could hear it.

“Merry Christmas, Ms. Grinch.”

______________________________________

Minutes after the movie had ended and the rest of the crew had gone to their quarters, the Captain requested both Black and White’s presence to question what exactly happened.

As she made her way to the Captain, the vent beside White’s feet creaked open eerily, and Black calmly climbed out to follow her there. 

“Eww...” she said, hastily making her way to the navigation wing to answer the captain’s summons. 

The two arrived at Blue’s attention, neither daring to speak first for fear of making a bad impression of the situation. 

Blue waved his hands. “Well? You were the one yelling, so what happened?”

White swallowed a lump in her throat before blurting the entire story, the popcorn, the details of the tendril, and everything else in between. “And then on the way here he hopped out of a vent and chased me!”

The captain raised an eyebrow.

“Sir, I offered her popcorn during the movie and she saw, apparently, that. Does that sound like it makes sense?”

Blue rubbed his grizzled beard through the suit’s helmet. “This sounds exactly like something you’d do.”

“Would I crawl out of a vent just to follow her here?”

“Yes.” The two answered in unison, granting the frazzled woman a degree of relief.

“White, you are dismissed. Thank you for your time. And as for you,” He said, gesturing towards the Imposter, “We have some things to discuss.”

After White had forgone her better judgement to leave the alien with the ship’s captain, the two sat together for a long time looking out the cockpit window before Blue began laughing like a madman. “Did you really do all that?” He said, as per usual garnering no response from the strange dark suited crewmate. “What in the holy hell has gotten into you?” He wheezed, taking a second to gather his bearings. “Before you were at least trying to hide it, now it’s like you don’t even care!”

In great fashion, he held his quiet.

“Look, I have no doubt in my mind she was telling the truth. Nothing in my mind can sway that from me, or anyone else on this ship, and you know it. But,” he said, standing from his spinning seat, “That’s not why we’re here right now. If I wanted to talk about that, we’d be repeating ourselves.”

The Imposter’s interest piqued.

“No, I brought you here for something else entirely. I want you to come here and look at this.”

The older gentleman beckoned the Imposter to come close to the porthole, encouraging him to look out. “Now, what do you think?”

The Imposter peered through the window, reserved curiosity quickly turning into a type of utter horrific astonishment he had never experienced. Before him floated a massive conglomerate of spacecrafts, as far as the eye could see flowed scattered debris from the shells of decaying cruisers and long-ruined husks of destroyed ships that spun wildly in the dark among rocky asteroids, like a cosmic metal graveyard.

“What the hell is this?” the Imposter asked breathlessly, stepping back from the window with genuine awe. 

“Thaaaat,” the captain slowly drawled, “Is what we call a Pit.”

Eyes still glued to the theater of ruin, he answered over his shoulder. “I don’t understand.”

“What do you think happens to all the empty ships?” Blue asked plainly.

“Pardon?”

“The empty ships with the entire crew killed off by Imposters, what do you think happens to them?”

The older man smiled lightly, turning his solemn gaze to the mass of shipwrecks. “Kind of eerie, isn’t it?” he said with a spread of the arms. “All those ships once brimming with people, all of ‘em dead and gone. Whenever these Imposters... kill everyone, hmm? There’s nowhere to go. They can’t just leave the ship when they’re in the middle of space, they don’t exactly know how to pilot them either, so they just end up, well...” he waved, showing the wreckage again. 

Black only noticed his mouth was agape as the communication panel lit up with an alerting beep, and Blue chuckled humorlessly. “But sometimes,” he began, finger hovering over a switch, “Sometimes there’s still something kicking out in the trash, trying to claw its way out.”

The captain flipped the switch, and the speakers buzzed on. “-Skeld 1339F, requesting permission to board-“

Blue flipped another switch, enjoying as he could almost hear Black’s heartbeat quicken.

“-stranded for almost two weeks, requesting immediate evac-“

Moving to flip another switch, this time the Imposter grabbed his hand. “Okay, I get it! I get it.” Blue nodded, lifting his hand from the console, the example clearly made. “Those things aren’t people. They’re ghosts.” he said gravely, looking out into the interstellar whirlpool. “That’s all those transmissions were, echoes of dead men behind masks of pretenders. Look where their murder got them, a glorified multibillion dollar metal tomb in the middle of nowhere.”

Black leaned against the wall, suddenly feeling strangely guilty.

“And here we are,” the Captain continued, a newfound fire in his voice as he drew himself up, “Looking at it all from the outside, a fully intact crew celebrating a festive holiday in happiness while we pass a monument of pure destruction. Kind of a stark contrast, a bit poetic, don’t you think?”

Where as before he kept silence out of principle, Black now genuinely felt at a loss for words after witnessing such a horrible sight. 

“Without it getting too sappy, here’s my point, and why I called you here today.”

Blue held out a hand towards the Imposter, a bright gleam to his eyes. “You’re fully capable of killing each and every last one of us, but here we are, enjoying Christmas and movies and cookies together. I wanted to thank you, Black, for breaking the mold, for giving everyone here a chance at life. Alien or not, in my heart you’re one of us.”

Doing his best to ignore the sting beginning to appear in the corners of his eyes, the Imposter shakily accepted the Captain’s handshake, not knowing fully how to take it all. 

“It may take time for everyone to be fully accepting, but now’s a good a time as any to start. You’re dismissed.”

As Black reached the door of the navigation room to leave, Blue called him back.

“One last thing!” He cried. “Merry Christmas!”

Only then, as the Imposter made his way in solitude back to his bunk, did the tears begin to flow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to say sorry for the wait, and yes, this is continuing. If you enjoy this fic, I highly recommend checking out “Deck the Halls (with the Blood of Crewmates)” by ToxicTrashRat. He has a really funny and unique style, and updates it every day (as opposed to me, since I don’t really have much time to write recently). I couldn’t recommend his work enough! Also, if you see any mistakes feel free to point them out :)


	5. The Dream (Pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bad dream can leave you cranky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHRISTMAS ISN’T OVER UNTIL FEBRUARY. Happy New Years, everyone!

The mind’s dozing world of fantasy is a contradiction in almost every sense. They’re peaceful and chaotic, sometimes pointless and sometimes prophetic, yet in the moment they feel so real.

Dreams are strange, strange things.

The Skeld’s pretender drifted in the starless void of space a fingertip’s length away from a shut airlock, staring helplessly into cold and uncaring faces that he had once called friends. While solar waves from distant suns beat furiously on his hide, as he succumbed to the chilling dark creeping ravenously at his back, he merely drifted motionless.

For the poor shapeshifter, his world was more akin to a nightmare, but the inescapable dread of these agonizing scenes did little to faze him. He had seen this place many times before, but while this astral limbo had once been a foul source of stress, he realized now what it truly was: 

Pointless.

Eventually he closed his eyes awaiting respite, when something changed. It was like a song changing pitch, same beat, different sound, indistinguishable to senses untrained.

When he opened his aching eyes after what could’ve been an eternity, the ship was gone, and now he was truly alone in a lifeless abyss. The pinpoints of distant stars now twinkled through the universal blinds, but they did little to provide comfort, their gaze instead judging, piercing.

This was not his dream.

In a state of pure, raw despair only found deep in the recessed of one’s sleep, Black flailed wildly in desperation, fruitlessly attempting to claw his way from this twisted realm. His every move against the darkness was reciprocated against himself, every tendril ripping through the pitch black felt on his skin, cutting and scratching and...

______________________________________

Black awoke violently, gasping at the invasive touch of soft fabric on his head. Confused, he twisted himself up roughly from his sleeping position and regarded his bunkmate. She was nearly asleep, splayed out on the couch with a hand rubbing his scalp absentmindedly.

“Purple!”

The crewmate’s attention was jerked back to reality, the lull of sleep shattered in a fit of disorientation. “Huh?” She said with a slurred tone, looking around with the promise of rest still evident in her voice. “What?”

Black shook her shoulder lightly. “What are you doing?”

Her brain felt like it skipped a beat. “I’m trying to sleep?”

“Why were you scratching my head?”

“Oh.” Purple pushed herself away, face contorting into a wry smile as she wiped at her helmet’s visor nervously. “You, uh, weren’t supposed to wake up.”

“Why were you scratching my head?” He repeated plainly.

Purple got up, moving to turn off their small television that now displayed static lines. “You came in here yesterday all upset, and passed out on my shoulder.”

He remembered the previous night with mixed feelings, still unsure of the captain’s words. “Purple, can you just tell me why the hell you were scratching my head?”

The crewmate finally caved. “You started purring in your sleep!” She declared with a degree of triumph in her voice. “Like a cat! So I thought, you know, cats like it when you pet them, right? And you’re all upset to begin with, so I started scratching to be nice, and in your sleep you showed all these little teeth and stuff, so I thought you were happy! Just like a cat, kind of!”

The Imposter sat in bewilderment. He was, at this point, so wholly unintimidating that the humans were comfortable enough to scratch his head and compare him to a dumb, fluffy pet. 

He sighed deeply, feeling a unique, soul draining type of defeat.

“Listen, I recorded it!”

Purple lifted a small boxy object next to his ear, and there was, undoubtably, the sound of him purring.

“Alright I get it!”

He held his head in his hands as the unfamiliar memories of his dream rapidly deteriorated from his mind. While he still knew some vague details, the recurring nature of it all somewhat set him on edge. ‘Maybe it’s just paranoia’ he reasoned, doing little to calm himself down.

Black checked his tablet. It was just past the usual waking hours, but he didn’t hear anything outside his bunk, which was somewhat concerning. The day was finally here, the legendary ‘Christmas’ the rest of the crewmates couldn’t stop buzzing about constantly. Though the date was correct, it didn’t feel very different. 

“Look, here’s what my cat looks like.” Purple continued in her playfully pestering way, presenting a photo of an admittedly cute looking creature in a red Christmas hat similar the one gifted to him.

He hated having anything in common with it. 

“I’m leaving.”

“Wait, where are you going?”

The Imposter easily wriggled free of the bundle of blankets Purple had draped over him in his slumber, moving to the door. “I have to get away from you before somebody ends up reporting a body.”

“Hey, wait!”

Black gasped in surprise as something in the doorway caught his foot, making him fall hard on his face. He hissed furiously, pivoting on the floor to inspect a thin wire over the doorframe.

Purple snorted uglily, instantly regretting laughing as the upset alien scowled his direction. “I told you to wait,” she said through involuntary giggles. 

Black already knew who was responsible for this most recent trap: Red. Since the incident in the Med Bay, Red had made it his life’s mission to repay every slight inconvenience Black had issued out tenfold. The man was brutal, unrelenting, and never knew the line between being a jerk and being funny, a crucial distinction Black prided himself in. 

A door opened at the end of the hall, and none other than his arch nemesis himself stepped out of their room, happily giving Black a thumbs up before leaving for their day. 

The Imposter briefly considered throwing him in the trash chute before discarding the idea entirely.

After an embarrassing moment of picking himself up off the floor, he checked his cracked tablet and was met with the surprise of no tasks displayed. More grateful than confused, the Imposter strolled along to the cafeteria in quiet admiration of all the decorations strung to the walls and ceilings. Though the ship had been decorated before, a lot of new things dotted the ceiling, from tiny snowflakes to reindeer twisting on a string. A lot of these things were clearly put up while he was asleep, but the reason why the crew chose to do it during their resting hours went mostly unknown to him. 

As clarity slowly returned to him after the grogginess from waking up faded, it suddenly occurred that none of this would be around forever. Although they didn’t feel any closer to their destination from where they were months ago, the Skeld was nearly to its destination, but he didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. His plan was to originally ditch the crew on Polus, but a lot had changed over the past few months, and things would most definitely be different than what he first thought.

It was only then, as he neared the entrance of the cafeteria, did he notice all the lights in the ship were out. A massive, towering shape loomed over him from the center of the room, but his low-light vision did little to clarify exactly what it was. 

As he flipped the switch, the room exploded into a storm of confetti and noise, a mechanical traintrack on the floor coming to life as a white powder lazily poured from the ceiling to cover the spiky green tower. A joyful tune played through the speakers, and a fat man in a red suit, Santa, he remembered, was talking on the TV screen.

He looked in wonder at the tree. He had seen them before while conducting research, but to be in front of one in person was a different thing entirely. The white flakes blanketed the tops of the branches, which below hung jingling orbs of varying color. It was, for all its simplicity, a beautiful sight to behold. 

He snapped out of his trance as he heard the bustling of nine sleepy crewmates file in behind him. 

“Well”, Pink began disappointedly, “There goes the surprise.”

The crew quietly milled into the fantastically decorated cafeteria mumbling their dissatisfaction.

His social ineptitude on full display, Black pulled away once the crew was done to stare more at the giant tower, away from everyone else. 

“It’s a Christmas Tree!” Purple whispered in his ear excitedly. “It’s the heart and soul of the holiday. Pretty, isn’t it?”

He nodded, unaware of the bustling around him until Orange stepped in to slip a glass of some brown liquid in his hand. 

Panicking as he remembered the last time he had tasted a drink given to him, Orange laughed in understanding. “It’s not a beer, sissy. It’s egg-nog, it actually tastes good.”

Black regarded the thick beverage warily. 

“As your doctor, I’m telling you it’s fine!” Pink said as he walked near the group of three. “Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? Everybody gonna figure out you’re an alien or something?”

The alien frowned. “Really?”

Pink backed off. “Just try the damn thing already. You’ll like it.”

The crowd descended upon him. “DRINK IT! DRINK IT! DRINK IT!”

Giving into peer pressure for the second time, Black unclasped his helmet expecting to gag like last time, but was instead pleasantly surprised at the smooth flavor of the drink. As the three awaited his opinion, his only answer was another sip, which was good enough for the high-spirited crew. 

Minus the gorgeous Christmas tree, it felt like any other day to the unaware Imposter. The crew ate food and watched movies on the big screen setup like before, but he could tell that wasn’t it. The celebration was fine, albeit a little awkward for him, but there just had to be something else, and not even Purple would tell him what it was. 

______________________________________

Orange and Red watched in amusement as Black downed another glass of egg-nog at the table.

“Is anyone gonna tell him that there’s alcohol in that stuff?”

Red finished his own cup. “Nah. Let him figure it out.”

______________________________________

While waiting for the scheduled movie, Black went and retrieved the chess set from his bunk and set up the board at a table, inviting others to join him for a game. 

Blue stopped by the table as the Imposter and Pink were deadlocked in a match. 

“When did you learn how to play?” He asked, pleasantly surprised.

It turned out his roommate was a great teacher, as in the next hour of matches the only people that even stood a chance at beating him were the captain, Pink, and of course Purple herself, who taught him the game in the first place. After five consecutive losses against the captain, Black eventually conceded and went for another glass of egg-nog, fully convinced the man was unbeatable.

He spotted White standing by the tree, trying to remember if he had played her already, a fog clouding his thoughts.

White cringed inwardly as the Black-suited alien approached her, dream of going the day unapproached by extraterrestrials thrown out the window. 

“Hey, Whi-“

“Stop!” She hissed aggressively. “I don’t want to speak to you, I don’t want to be near you, I don’t want anything to do with you today! Every time I talk to you something creepy happens!”

Black stopped in his tracks. For what he did, the aggression kind of felt unwarranted. “Look, I’m sorry about scaring you, but if you don’t calm down everyone’s gonna come over and start chanting for you to calm down like last time. Then what are you gonna do?”

White crossed her arms.

“Besides, you’re still alive, right? Aren’t you happy?”

She began tapping her foot, impatience overflowing. 

“Okay, but seriously. I’m sorry. If you want to have a friendly game, I’ll be over there. And again, I’m sorry.”

White waved him off.

______________________________________

The scheduled time for the movie was getting close, and the line of people who had come to play him eventually dwindled down. His record stood strong, and none besides the couple who he couldn’t best before could win against him. As he added another mental check to his growing tally after beating Red again, he almost began packing up the game set as White stormed through the line of people to sit down across for him. 

“Set ‘em up.”

To say White handed him the biggest ass-whooping of his life would’ve been an understatement. Game after game the two played, each checkmate and resignation completely destroying the alien’s confidence in his own abilities. Every move he made felt like it was two moves behind his opponent’s. Though he tried his hardest, the Imposter felt loss after loss after loss, and expectedly waved the white flag after a particularly brutal attack. 

“You’re really enjoying yourself, aren’t you?” He said, feeling down. 

White grinned evilly. “That’s payback. And no, we’re not even.”

______________________________________

As the movie played, Black couldn’t even focus on what was being said. The figures on screen blurred together, their words becoming nothing but meaningless blurbs and noises. 

After much effort, he remembered the brain-fog sensation he had felt the last time he had tried alcohol. Horrified, he looked at his drink, and turned to White on his side, the woman still looking pleased with herself. 

“Hey,” he whispered lowly to her. “This isn’t alcohol, is it?”

She looked at him like he was an idiot. “No shit.”

Yellow yelped as Black jumped up from the seat in front of her, wondering along with the rest of the crew why they were in such a hurry to leave. 

______________________________________

The Imposter screamed inwardly as the world around him spun and shook in ways that didn’t make sense. Pink was right, the drink was good, but it’s contents didn’t mix nicely with his body. 

Unable to plan clearly, Black went to the safest room he could think of: The bathroom.

______________________________________

White, begrudgingly, began to worry about the alien. The movie was long over with, but he had never returned. “Does he usually do that?” She asked Purple, who just shrugged. “Nah.”

She eyed the presents under the tree, and the rapidly approaching time. She needed to find him. 

White scurried around the ship in search, checking every corner from Navigation all the way to the Reactor room, more than a little dismayed at the heap of nothing she found. 

She stopped by the entrance of Electrical. The thought of going in completely slipped her mind before, as years of training subconsciously screamed not to ever go in alone. 

White walked in slowly, flipping the light switch to reveal a mountain of red string trailing towards the vent, where someone moaned softly in pain.

“Black?”

A pause, no answer. 

“Black, get out of the fucking vent. Why are you in there?”

The grate creaked open, a visor partially peeking through. “How was I supposed to know egg-nog had beer in it? I was puking, then I panicked.”

She sighed, unwilling to argue all the wrong in this situation. “Come out, you weirdo. Not even you should miss out on what comes next. Do you even know what comes next?”

Black shook his head, rubbing the top of his red hat against the metal grate goofily. 

“Also, are you playing with string in there?”

“It makes me feel better.”

“Oh,” she said in understanding. “Like a cat?”

The alien growled in frustration.

______________________________________

As walking became increasingly difficult, he leaned on White for support, noting how different she reacted to him now compared to previous times. Was this the true power of alcohol and why the humans drank it all the time?

Ignoring the flurry of questions that sprung from this strange development, the two slowly but surely made their way back to the cafeteria, already a bit late as the rest of the crew sat beneath the tree shredding boxes apart. 

The captain boasted a new keychain at his hip, it’s purpose useless, but the thought appreciated. Pink touted a new set of medical instruments. Where did all these things come from?

Purple waved their direction, holding a tiny box covered in the same shiny material as the others. “This one’s for you. Doesn’t say who it’s from.” She said to Black, winking as she handed him the package.

White grimaced as he ripped open the present, the contents falling out into his grasp.

“Well, that’s appropriate.”

Black rolled his gift around in his hands in complete disbelief. The knife felt comfortable in his grip, balanced perfectly and steel gleaming in the low light. He placed the blade against the floor tile, confused as it retracted into the handle. 

“Oh, wow!” Purple exclaimed, “A gag knife!”

He tested the knife against his hand, the blade retracting with no harm against himself. He noticex with a degree of disappointment that the steel was fake, and he couldn’t stab anyone with it.

“You wanna... scare anyone?” Purple asked, grinning. 

In his mind, White was already bled dry of entertainment. There was no use scaring somebody who had nothing to fear. There was one, however, who he couldn’t wait to stab. Clouded thoughts or not, no amount of convincing would change his mind.

“Yeah, I have an idea.”


End file.
